Book Description

This edition of an established text provides a concise introduction to the English legal system. Both law students and students on vocational courses may welcome it as a highly readable and stimulating overview of the subject. Building on the strengths of previous editions, the text has been substantially updated to include: Civil Procedure rules 1998-1999; an evaluation of Woolf Reforms in practice; the restructuring of the civil appeal structure in 1999-2000; the remodelling of the delivery of legal services 1998-2002; demolition of civil and criminal legal aid and replacement with the Community Legal Service and the Criminal Defence Service; the implementation of the Access to Justice Act 1999 and ancillary policy changes; further demolition of lawyers' restrictive practices and monopolies under the Access to Justice Act 1999 and surrounding debate; the Crime and Disorder Act 1998; the Narey reforms, speeding up criminal justice; the creation of the Narey Courts, changes to the Youth Courts; enhanced powers for single justices and for magistrates' clerks; the creation of a unified stipendiary bench of district judge.